Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-04-29
Death of a Minister.
SOME INTER- STING RECOLLEC TIONS RE-
vIvED IN CONNECTION WITH
GREAT CHURCH sTRueGLE.

SOME INTERESTING RECOLLECTIONS RE
YIvED IN CONNECTION WITH A
GREAT CHURCH STRUGGLE.
Rev. E. P. Phelps, for many years a
minister of the Baltimore Conference.
Methodist Episcopal church, whose name
was bng familiar in Staunton where he
once resided, died Sunday night at his
home in Washington, D. c., of heart dis
ease. He had been taking walk, and
upon his return to the house had sud-
den attack, and died in few minutes.
Mr.. Phelps had been practicing law in
Washington several years with success
having studied law and been admitted to
the bar in Virginia eight years ago. He
was born in Frederick county, Va, in
1915, and entered the intinerant ministry
at 10 years of age.
Twenty-six years ago, in 1861, the Meth
odist Episcopal Church like the country
itself, was in the throes OF disruption. The
denomination in Stanton had been pros
pering and had built itself large church,
the one it now worships in, and the build
ing was to be dedicated on the first Sunday
in March, 1861. Rev. DR.. James A. McCau-
ley of Carlisle, Pa, who bad been the
President of the Wesleyan Female Insti-
tute (then located opposite Trinity church)
was invited to deliver the dedicatory SER
mon, but being unable to get here, Rev.
E. 2. Bhelps, then presiding Elder of the
Lewisburg District, a very able man, was
invited to take his place. He accepted.
but after preaching the sermon did not
leave Staunton, for on the Wednesday
following, the annual and, as it proved, the
last meeting Of the Baltimore Conference
of the M. e. Church here was to take
place in the building just dedicated. The
Conference was an exciting one and the
debate On the separation from the North
ern church excited the whole community.
/ Mr.. Harvey Risk, who was then chief clerk
| to the postm aster Capt. Levi Stevenson,
says that every night the citizens would
crowd the church to listen to the debates.
| The Conference sat eight days and while
it was sitting another religious body not
provided for in the Me thodist discipline
a lay conference composed of the lay dele
gates to the Baltimore Conference-was
+, also sitting in the Baptist church-about
a hundred yards away. Among the mem
bers who took part in this lay conference
was the now noted Judge Bond of the U.
| s. Circuit Court. When the Conference
| adjourned it had split from the Northern
church. Presiding Elder Phelps went
with the Northern church, as did Rev.
Jos. R. Wheeler, the then pastor Of the
Staunton church, who had come here from
| Alexandria.
In 1865, as soon as the war had ended,
| Rev. Mr.. Phelps reappeared in Stanton
| as the Presiding Elder of the Rocking
ham District of the Methodist Episcopal
| Church, appointed to that position by the
presiding Bishop of the Baltimore M. E.
Conference, North. Of course his author
ity was not recognized, but he settled
down here occupying the residence recent
| ly purchased by tie Y. M. q. Association
corner of Main and Lewis streets. AT the
| same time, and appointed by the same au-
| thority, came pastor for the Staunton
| church, Rev. Mr.. Mitchell, who of course
had no congregation, but would go out
now and then to Middlebrook and preach
| to two or three persons assembled there
from the vicinity. The pulpit of tie
Staunton church was filed by Rev. James
E. Armstrong who came from Baltimore.
and had been appointed by the Baltimore
! Conference of the M. e. Church South,
| ~, sol, -,
to this charge. Mr.. Mitchell after year
here, was sent elsewhere by his Bishop,
but Mr.. Phelps staid the whole of the four
years from 1865 to 1869. He was the Agent
of the Preachers Aid Society, an organi-
cation within the Baltimore M. E. Con-
ference before the war, and which held the
deeds to the Wesleyan Female Institute
here and to tue Staunton church building
also. Mr., Phelps brought suit in the Cir
cult Court on behalf of the Aid Society to
recover possession Of these properties from
the occupants, being two of a large num-
Der of similar suits brought by this Socie-
ty throughout the South. In the year
1866, Rev. w. A. Harris came here and
took charge of the Wesleyan Female In
stitute and compromised the claim of the
Society in order to get rid of its interfer-
ence. The other suit, though allowed to
sleep, was not settled until the Cape MAJ
| settlement between the Northern and
Southern churches some years ago.
| Mr.. Phelps was unceasing in his efforts
to secure the Methodist Chu1ch property
| in Virginia, to which the Preachers Aid
Society made claim, and was the author
of the following clause in the Consultation
of Virginia which was adopted by the
| Underwood convention:
Sec 8. The rights of ecclesiastical bodies
| in, and to Church property, conveyed to them
| by regular deed of conveyance shall not be
affected by the late civil war, nor by any an
tecedent or subsequent event, nor by any act
of the legislature purporting to govern the
same, but all such property shall pass to, and
| be held by, the parties set forth in the original
deeds of conveyance, or the legal assignees of
such original parties holding through, or by
conveyance, ard any act or acts of the legisla-
J ture in opposition thereto shall be null and
void.
Mr.. Phelps was in the Methodist minis
, try for forty years, after which he settled
in Washington and was admitted to the
bar. He leaves three sons and daughter.
While he resided in Staunton, his wife
died, and he afterwards married widow
ed sister of the wife of the late W. L..
| Herr. of Staunton.
Funeral of Stanton Lady in Florida.
The Jacksonville, Fla, papers contain